Chocolate Turkeys

A pair of Chocolate Turkeys
Photo courtesy of Phil Sponenberg of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy

Following text with permission from
"Turkeys"
by Craig Russell
SPPA Bulletin, 1997, 2(4):5

The Chocolate is a [dark] fawn or clay. Like the related Clay, this bird is now rare but mostly found in the southern U.S. It was formerly common in France.

Following text with permission from
"1998 SPPA Turkey Census Report"
by Paula Johnson

The name describes the color of its feathers, shanks and feet. I can't find out much about this variety except that it used to be common in the south and in France. This turkey was well established in the southern part of the U.S. before the Civil War. The Civil War caused a great decline in turkey breeding throughout the southeastern states and the Chocolate turkey never recovered to pre-war popularity. Being the same size as the Black turkeys, they are very rare with only 8 hens and 3 toms. This is less than 1% of the Historical turkeys. More breeders are needed!

Here's an SPPA article on the Preservation of the Chocolate Gene Pool.

A Chocolate tom strutting
Photo courtesy of Porter's Rare Heritage Turkeys

A flock of Chocolates
Photo courtesy of Porter's Rare Heritage Turkeys

Another Chocolate tom displaying
Photo courtesy of Porter's Rare Heritage Turkeys

Day-old Chocolate poults
Photo courtesy of Porter's Rare Heritage Turkeys

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